To Pray Like Jesus (Part 8)

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth (Psalm 212:1-2)

Whatever your eyes are set upon, you will behold. Wherever your heart is headed, there shall be your destiny! With this, the Lord has taught me to have Him as my one and only vision in prayer. There is a hymn I love to sing that helps me enter in:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,Look full in His wonderful face,And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,In the light of His glory and grace.

The things of the earth belongs to the earth but when we pray, we must enter into the spirit. It is important to set your eyes on Jesus. It is important to set your heart on Jesus. Your entire being as a whole must focus on Jesus! When unable to focus on Jesus, apply the scripture "resist the devil and he will flee from you", repeat it over and over. Then ask yourself this question, "what is my treasure right now? What is my interest right now? Search and know what is your treasure. Is your mind wondering in the grocery store, in the shopping mall, on your to do list etc? This happens because you probably spent much time there and what you need to do is to declare that you reject any treasure other than Jesus and to proclaim that you choose to keep Jesus as your only treasure. Why? Because wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be (Matthew 6:21).

FOCUS ON JESUS

When I was a student driver in Africa, my instructor began by verbally telling me what to do. I got everything right in my mind. I recited and rehearsed it to him a couple times and he said "great!" When it was time to practice what I learned in theory however, I went on the wheels but found out that I had quickly forgotten everything! My mind went blank, and I headed for the gate instead of the road, but thank God the driver was watching and was able to stop the car before I hit the gate.

I was scared that I did not take driving lessons again that year. I wondered if I would ever be able to drive again. When I came to USA, my colleagues encouraged me and said, "look, everyone drives, you can do it too. Look, everyone walks just like everyone drives, you can do it as well". So I began to have the courage to take driving lessons again. My instructor was a godly man. He told me that when I am on the wheel, I must remember this one thing, "remember to look where you are going. Let your eyes look straight where you are going." I did it and amazingly I drove well. Keeping my eyes straight ahead, I found out that the wheels always went wherever I looked and desired to go".

With this, the Lord has taught me to remember - where do I want to go in prayer? Whom do I want to meet in prayer? What am I trying to accomplish as I pray? To me before it is a time to present my requests to God, prayer is instead a time I come and meet the Lord, it is a time to get hold of God. To do so, the vision in prayer is very important. Where you look is very important. The Bible says, "FIXING our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

When you pray, fix your eyes on Jesus whom you have come to meet. In Matthew 6 it says that when you pray, "close the door", I close my eyes and the door to the gateways of the physical realm, and pray to our heavenly Father, who is unseen. Spiritually, I look up to Jesus, I envision Him and I look heavenward with my spiritual eyes. "...and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You". Close your physical eyes, raise your spiritual eyes to heaven, to the one who is able to save and then pray deeply (John 17:1). "Now Jesus lifted His eyes upwards and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." John 11:41

When you do this and make a determination to fix your eyes heavenward to Jesus, you will find that you are able to defeat all distractions that come during prayer. Together with this however, you must bind satan and cast Him out - by constantly resisting the devil.

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1-2).